Come In If You're Good Looking!

Back in the 40’s and 50's, people actually visited each other rather than texting, tweeting or poking each other on Facebook.

According to my mom, a knock on any door on the Point back then was likely to be greeted with shouts of "Come in if you're good looking." Most everyone knew everyone else in the neighborhood, so people rarely locked their doors or expected too many strangers.

One evening, Grandpa was off on the boats, Nona was at a Ladies’ Auxiliary meeting and the kids – then mostly in their teens - were all camped out in the living room after supper, shooting the breeze, playing cards or whatever people did before TV, the Internet and Wii.

There came a knock at the door. Assuming it was Miss Nettie or Miss Isabel from next door or perhaps Aunt Frances from around the corner, they all shouted out in unison, “Come in if you’re good looking.”

The door opened to reveal the biggest, burliest, baldest, meanest looking guy any of them had ever seen. He had tattoos up and down his arms and his nose looked like it had been broken. Several times. He stared at them. They stared at him. Before anyone could say anything, he ran through the living room, dining room and kitchen, out the back door and disappeared into the night.

To this day, no one knows who he was, where he came from, who or what he was looking for or who the hell lied and told him he was good looking.

Maybe he just wanted a piece of my Nona's jelly roll. You don't hear about these too much anymore, but this used to be one of her go-to weekday desserts. It's an old-fashioned sponge cake rolled up around a jelly center.

Jelly Roll

3 eggs
1 cup of sugar
3 Tbsp. water or milk
1 tsp of vanilla
1 cup of flour
1 tsp baking powder
Pinch, salt
powdered sugar
2/3 cups jelly or jam (your choice but Nona usually made with strawberry preserves).

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line a jelly-roll pan (15 1/2" x 10 1/2" x 1") with greased wax paper, aluminum foil or parchment paper.

Beat eggs until light and fluffy. Add sugar, water ad vanilla and cream well. Stir in vanilla.

In separate bowl, sift together flour, baking powder and salt. Mix gradually into wet ingredients.

Pour into prepared pan, spreading to the edges. Bake 10-12 minutes, until cakes bounces back when touched or toothpick comes out clean.

Spread towel on clean surface and sprinkle liberally with powdered sugar. Turn cake onto towel. Carefully remove paper and trim off any crispy brown edges from the cake.

While the cake is still hot, working from the narrow end carefully roll up the towel with the cake. so that the towel is inside the cake. Cool on a wire rack about 10-15 minutes. (Note: some people like to wrap a damp cloth around the dry cloth).

Unroll the cake. Spread with jam (beat with a fork to make more spreadable). Re-roll the cake (without the towel). Sprinkle with more sifted powdered sugar. Slice and serve.